Longdog Audio (LDA) MCj3 Hybrid Phono Stage. Oct 2022 I purchased an LDA Moving Coil Phono Stage. This Phono Stage is designed specifically for low output moving coil cartridges (LOMC). It comes in a full size case and has a Hybrid topology, combining a jfet and tube front end. Because of the purist approach, focusing on LOMC only, it's a very straight forward product. With fixed gain of 64dB, the only adjustment is for cartridge loading. There are 6 well positioned values, to cover the majority of LOMC cartridges. The internal layout is very tidy, with good quality parts used throughout. This means there is little for the DIY'er to upgrade, but like all tube based devices, leaves the opportunity for a little customization via tube rolling. The unit came with: x1 JJ ECC82 (current production) x2 Phillips ECC88 To be fair, this combination of tubes is very quite and performs very well out of the box, this being the best sounding Phono Stage I've owned. At a guess, I would say the JJ is the weakest link. I happened to have an equivalent NOS 12AU7WA by Radio Technique (French Phillips) with matched triodes. This is a military grade tube from the 1960's and is very well regarded, so in it went. I'll leave the pair of Phillips ECC82 for now and wait to see how this combination performs. If I was to be hyper critical and look at what I might have done different with this unit, I would say that the case is a little light weight and the top especially, vibrates and rattles when given a finger tap. Having said that, it doesn't seem to effect the performance. I might try and address this at some point with some damping material. The other minor quibble is the control knob for the cartridge loading, it's not very clear which value you have selected. As can be seen below, I swapped the stock control knob, for one which I think is easier to read and adjust. The replacement knob, with its marker line running down the side, gives good clear indication as to which value is selected. To sum up, the LDA MCj3 has clean lines and performance to match, all at a very reasonable price point. I like it a lot.